DVD review: ‘Jolene’ A decade later he cast a Juilliard graduate named Jessica Chastain in her first movie role as the title character in “Jolene.” A magnet to men, she winds up married to a bigamist and to an abusive religious zealot and in relationships with a Las Vegas mobster (a compelling Chazz Palminteri) and with a female warden (Frances Fisher) at a mental hospital where Jolene is …
Movies to see this weekend, Nov. 23 Flight One of the best plane-crash sequences in all of film highlights this drama about a gifted pilot, suffering from alcoholism, on a collision course with authorities and his own illness. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington, the film is also notable for Kelly Reilly, who does strong work as a heroin addict struggling with her own …
Movies opening this week, Nov. 23 The Big Picture It’s good to be Paul (Romain Duris), a partner in an elite Paris law firm who has a beautiful wife, Sarah, and adorable kids
Meat Loaf has released his new Guilty Pleasure Tour DVD
Movies to see this weekend, Nov. 21 The Sessions John Hawkes plays a polio victim who can’t move his arms or legs but wants to experience sex for the first time, so he hires therapist Helen Hunt in this well-acted, humane and sexually explicit drama. A Royal Affair This fascinating story, straight out of Danish history, is about a doctor who ends up dictating Denmark’s politics through the …
Blu-ray review: ‘Umberto D.’ Umberto D. One of the masterpieces of world cinema – and a supreme example of Italian neorealism at its very best – Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 classic is now available in pristine Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Battisti (who died in 1977 at age 94) achieved screen immortality on the basis of a single film
New on DVD and Blu – ray , Nov. 16 Brave Mother-daughter issues in fairy-tale Scotland take center stage in this story of a rebellious teenage girl who does something really terrible to her mother – but then it’s a learning experience for all concerned. The film, directed by Jon Shenk, shows how this young and charismatic former political prisoner came to power, and details his efforts at the 2009 …
What movies to see this week, Nov. 16 Lincoln An amazing film from Steven Spielberg featuring one of the year’s best performances, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, working every possible angle to pass the 13th Amendment in the waning days of the Civil War. Skyfall A good-enough action movie, but a disappointing James Bond entry, with a sober, somber, downbeat Bond trying to protect M …
Today we honor the release of the Friends: The Complete Series Blu-Ray box set with something just as entertaining. No we’re not going to treat you to one of Phoebe’s intriguing acoustic sessions, we’re talking about a contest.
Brave is hitting DVD and Blu-ray the week, which is probably the biggest title of the new releases, as are two of the summer’s misfires, but the biggest title is Lawrence of Arabia , and it’s fair to say they don’t get much bigger.